"The superior man is catholic and no partizan. The mean man is a partizan and not catholic." (君子周而不比、小人比而不周。) ─ Confucius, The Analects, 2.XIV, translation by James Legge.

Monday, December 20, 2010

"Secularism a Bigger Threat Than Islam"

"[S]secular enlightenment... is far more dangerous to our souls than a world religion that is devoted to worshipping the same God as Christians and Jews, albeit in a partial, somewhat primitive and distorted manner" — Peter Kreeft: Catholics Can Learn from Muslim Devotion.

Speculation about pets and sex in Heaven is nothing more and nothing less than pious speculation that might help old ladies and young guys get with the Faith. We can dismiss it as silly, which it is, and irrelevant, but it's not heretical, so it's not really worthy of much thought.

Prof. Kreeft's quasi-perennialist ideas about Islam, though, are.

The way I see it, the final battle will not be with Islam. That battle was fought and won back in 1529 (or whatever year it was). Islam has been on the wane, culturally and intellectually, ever since, no matter what numerical gains it may have made. Sure, it still causes problems to Christians here and there, but it is not an existential threat.

Yet, in the West, we have a whole range of 9/11 Derangment Syndrome sufferers who see themselves as latter-day Charles Martels or Jan Sobieskies, and ignore the real existential threat, Militant Secularism. In fact, they even sometimes ally themselves with the Militant Secularists against Islam.

The Catholic Church is leading the fight, of course. Allies in America include heretics like Mormons and globally heretics like Muslims. In the end, we pray that many of both our allies and enemies are won over to Faith.

Whether or not Secularism or Islam is the greater threat in the US is a completely different matter than if Catholics can learn from Muslim devotion.

What can and should learn from is their own heritage which is rich and vast as the ocean in comparison to the paltry Muslim mud puddle. Articles like Kreeft's say much about modern Catholic practices while saying nothing about the Faith.

Well said. We should indeed learn from our heritage. Muslims can merely teach us to take our religion seriously. That's the lesson I gleaned from a year in Malaysia. I never really considered converting to Islam there (although I did a few years later, briefly), but instead became a better Christian.

In fact, it was living among Muslims that led me to historic Christianity and from the Lutheranism of my upbringing to Anglo-Catholicism and ultimately to Catholicism itself.